In order to achieve cost effective concentrated growing of vegetables ideal conditions must exist in limited space at low over all cost. Beyond the obvious advantages of growing vertically, ideal conditions must be achieved in areas of aerated growing medium, efficient watering and providing growing nutrients. Historically, with vertical gardening, providing light weight, loose non-compacting high drainage aerated growing medium for adequate water distribution resulted in a growing medium that provided poor root anchorage. In this scenario, short plant variety of vegetables (beans, broccoli) can lose root anchorage when heavy with abundant produce, particularly in a vertical application where the plant has more exposure to wind. The need to address the wind issue is highlighted by changes in sign ordinances requiring rigid plastic signs to be replaced with vinyl materials.
Additionally, there are difficulties in achieving a balance of water distribution and aeration, particularly when utilizing loose non-compacting growing medium and geosynthetics/geotextiles. A variety of different arrangements have been tried. Though geotextiles are commonly used in agriculture, and in soil stabilization and suspended growing in small quantities, there is a need for further improvements in order to achieve vertical concentrated gardening while maintaining optimal water utilization and uniform/balanced distribution. This balance of optimal water utilization and distribution has not been achieved due to a variety of problems with poor designs. At least part of the reason for the poor designs is because known designers apparently do not fully appreciate and design for the difference in water flow specification of geosynthetics in the areas of filtering vs. drainage. Specifically, filtering considerations use a first set of liquid flow calculations/formulas and flow pressure/resistances, while drainage considerations use a very different set of calculations/formulas and flow pressure/resistances. The use of geosynthetics for vertical gardening is more of a drainage application, not a filtering application, thus different principles of water flow apply. As a result, many existing designs incorporate wrong (or at least significantly less than optimized and/or very inefficient) product characteristics and features, and use incorrect growth media, resulting in water inflow rates and water retention rates that are not well-suited for optimal plant growth. This concept is further discussed below.